Male Porsche Customers Chafe at Rise of Female Buyers

Once, more than 90% of Porsche’s customers were men. But that number has been dropping since the company began selling SUVs and four-door sedans, and it’s now down to about 85%. Some of Porsche’s existing customers have had a hard time sharing their brand with women, lamenting the erosion of tradition and expressing feelings of betrayal, says Jill J. Avery of Harvard Business School. Yet the move has paid off for Porsche: Sales increased 31% in the first half of 2013, thanks in part to a rise in female buyers of the Panamera sedan and the Cayenne SUV, which has become the company’s best-selling car in America.

Loading...

Partner Center

The email and password entered aren’t matching to our records. Please try again, or reset your password. If you have a username from our previous site, start by using that. Please See our FAQ for more.

If you are signing in for the first time on the new HBR.org but have an existing account, please enter your existing user name and password to migrate your account.Please see Frequently Asked Questions for more information.